17 Japanese acts come together for the Music Awards Japan, to honour Yellow Magic Orchestra with “Rydeen Reboot”

So, there’s a new music awards show in town in Japan — Music Awards Japan.

I don’t know whether it’s just my algorithm or whether Music Awards Japan threw money into advertising the hell out of it on YouTube — but it’s been all over my YouTube for the past couple of weeks. And it’s great, because Japan needed its own big ass music awards show, for Japanese music fans outside of Japan to know about it and for (something of) it to be accessible on YouTube.

The inaugural show honoured Yellow Magic Orchestra, who unfortunately had two of its members — Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto — pass away in 2023. I don’t think Music Awards Japan could have picked a better act to honour for it’s first ever show. YMO’s contributions to Japanese music are incredible and ever present — continuing to live on through acts such as Perfume, and producers such as Yasutaka Nakata, Shinichi Osawa, Ram Rider and Cornelius — just to name the most obvious few. But YMO’s influence went far beyond Japan, with a double A-side single of theirs charting in the US and UK back in 1980 — one of which would be sit at the heart of the infamous theft scandal involving Mariah Carey’s “Loverboy” and Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Real”.

Before the remaining member of YMO — Haruomi Hosono — was given the Symbol of Music Japan Award…Award, “Rydeen Rebooot” was unleashed. A performance which included a bunch of Japanese acts performing different takes and flips on YMO’s song, “Rydeen”.

Music Awards Japan 2025 - Rydeen Reboot | CEIPA

“Rydeen” was released as a single in 1980 and featured on YMO’s second studio album, Solid State Survivor. But I’m surprised that of all the YMO songs, “Rydeen” was the one which was chosen for this performance. Because despite charting on the Oricon at number 15, it wasn’t exactly a massive hit and YMO released other singles which charted higher. I guess I didn’t think it was a song that people would most associate with YMO, but I could be wrong. No complaints from me though, because “Rydeen” is one of my favourite YMO songs. I listen to it all the damn time. So I’m glad to see it get a spotlight and be reintroduced to new audiences. And I supposed if I gravitated towards “Rydeen”, then it’s not out of the realm of possibility that many others did too. After all, it is the YMO music video with the most views on YouTube.

Okay. So I just talked myself into why “Rydeen” was chosen.

“Rydeen Reboot” features (in order of appearance) Perfume, Yoshinori Sunahara, STUTS, Chanmina, Number_i, Vaundy (in virtual form), Miku Hatsune (also in virtual form), Hayato Sumino, Yuki Chiba, Takashi ‘The most resilient hairline in all of Japan’ Hosokawa, Ichiro Yamaguchi of Sakanaction, Fruits Zipper, Cutie Street, 10-Feet, Atarashii Gakko!, Yuki and Yasuyuki Okamura.

Fruits Street and Cutie Zipper popped in like some MCU cameos. And I stay struggling to tell the two groups apart. Lawd help me if Candy Tune was in this shit too.

Music Awards Japan 2025 - Rydeen Reboot | CEIPA

“Rydeen Reboot” was really cool. I liked the little YMO easter eggs we got throughout — Miku Hatsune referencing the US cover of YMO’s self-titled debut and Ichiro Yamaguchi of Sakanaction performing a “Rydeen” mashup of “Shin Takarajima”, as the dancers all held yellow vinyls (YMO’s debut album was eventually pressed onto yellow vinyls). And I really liked the range of different acts who were a part of this tribute, and how they spanned not just genres, but generations. But, as cool as this tribute was, the “Rydeen” of it all did get lost quite a few times. Some of the segments could have been cut to feel a bit more connected and less like somebody was flipping through music channels. It also could’ve done with a couple more acts from the Shōwa era, as Takashi Hosokawa felt so random on his own.

But on the whole, “Rydeen Reebot” was really fucking cool. It was also a great display of Japanese music and creativity. And that whilst Japanese music may have a sound and an aesthetic — it’s never just one thing. There is variety.

Music Awards Japan 2025 - Rydeen Reboot | CEIPA

Now, let’s talk about Perfume. Because what in the actual hell!?

Having Perfume be a part of this, to just show up in a remix of their “Spinning World” and VMAJ 2012 outfits and NOT perform made zero gravity sense to me. It’s egregious. Because of all the acts who were a part of “Rydeen Reboot”, Perfume was the most obvious choice to perform. “Rydeen” is not only right up Perfume’s alley, but it fits into the sonic soundscape of Nebula Romance. “Ima Ima Ima” and “Cosmic Treat” are YMO as HELL.

I just cannot believe Perfume didn’t perform. Maybe they didn’t have the time to pull something together within the timeframes and schedules that Music Awards Japan had set. This is the only reason it could be. Because Perfume had to have been one of the first acts that came to mind when Music Awards Japan was putting together this YMO tribute. And one thing about Perfume, if they can squeeze in a performance, they will do it. Even if they can’t squeeze in a performance, they will still do it. They could be in the middle of a tour, a-chan could be losing her edges, Kashiyuka could be dealing with [turns and looks into the camera] flow and Nocchi could be having a breakdown over her seventh JoyCon succumbing to drifting — it doesn’t matter. They will text Mikiko to put the choreo together, text Kazuaki Seki to pull some visuals together, DM Daito Manabe to sort the tech, e-mail their outfit design team to run the Juki sewing machines through the night to put together something ugly and give the people a performance.

It really is such a shame that Perfume didn’t perform as part of “Rydeen Reboot”. It was such a glaring omission to me as somebody who is a fan of Perfume and the song “Rydeen” and always felt that a fusion of the two could be cool, but that we’d never see it. Just for “Rydeen Reboot” to happen, for Perfume to be a part of it and see that I actually coulda gotten it, only to not get it. 

But, great fit for YMO and my own personal disappointment aside — it’s a shame that Perfume weren’t able to be showcased in a performance which would be uploaded to YouTube for the world to see. As I post this, the “Rydeen Reboot” performance is at 1.4 million views on YouTube. That’s 1.4 million people who saw Perfume do nothing but stand there in pleasers and kimonos, instead of doing what they do best — perform in some of the most creative setups.

First the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, now this.

PISSED.